‘How does one recycle plastic waste? Someone mentioned that it has to be in some special plastic bags?’ (Marius Lazauskas, a Master student of Architecture Building and Planning)

You can dispose of plastic waste at 52 locations in Eindhoven. Many supermarkets have huge containers for this purpose on the parking lot. You do not need to put the plastic in a special bag necessarily, you can also gather it at home in an ordinary plastic bag.

Nearly all plastic packagings can be handed in: PET bottles, empty shampoo bottles, plastic bags, bread bags, empty butter tubs et cetera. Other materials should not be disposed of there, such as polystyrene packagings of fast food or meat trays, packagings of chemical waste, crisp bags and milk cartons (for they also contain other materials than plastic).

In 2009 164 million kilos of plastic were recycled in the Netherlands. That is 38.2 percent of all the plastic packaging material put onto the market that year. For that matter, most households do not only separate plastic, but also glass, fruit, vegetable and garden waste (GFT) as well as paper. Glass you must take to the bottle bank yourself (which can usually be found at the supermarket as well), while GFT and paper are collected on regular days. (SK)

More information about waste collection in Eindhoven:
www.eindhoven.nl/inwonersplein/leefomgeving/Afval-9.htm (Dutch)